Adam's House
Helping Hearts Heal
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Children are often left to grieve alone and in isolation. This often leads to children developing negative coping strategies to help them deal with the painful emotions tied to the death of a loved one. The COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis we see in Connecticut, child are dealing with an out-of-oder death more than ever. Childhood bereavement is not going away, but we can make it as comforting and supportive of a journey as possible. At Adam's House children get their voices heard and their feelings are often validated by their peers going through the same crisis. They draw strength from their peers and gain new strategies for dealing with their loss. Even with the pandemic, albeit with difficult challenges, we have continued to forge ahead, safely, to offer support to our past as well as new families. Ultimately, our goal is to empower our program participants to cope with their loss so they may live their lives to the fullest.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Helping Hearts Heal Program
Adam's House program is designed to support a child, 5-18 years of age. At Adam's House, they learn they will not have to do this tough grief work alone. Peer support has been studied and considered an effective model of support for grief. Adam's House uses a closed-ended education model. A closed group means that once the group members have been interviewed by our staff and cleared by our specialist partners, they begin the program together and end the program together. Families are offered the option of entering a program, but must commit to attending each week's meeting of the eight-week program. A closed-ended model provides the group a sense of security so children feel safe enough to share their grief with their new friends. Parents meet as a group while the children are meeting. Parents will learn how to converse with them and to support them. They are instructed about developmental tasks of all ages and how to appropriately model grief for their children. Littles: Children (5-7 years of age) who have had a parent, sibling or other significant person die. They ""explore"" and share their feelings through play and art activities.Middles:Children (7 to 12 years of age) share feelings about the death of a loved one and feel supported by their peer group during their grief. Teens:Our 13-18 years old teens support each other as they share their experiences about the death of a parent, sibling, best friend or other significant person in their life. Parent Group:While each children's group is meeting, their surviving parent(s) or caregivers will meet in a separate group with a trained facilitator. This is an opportunity to share the concerns and fears that the families and friends are facing at home, and to support one another.
Helping Hearts Heal
An 8-week grief education program.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Age groups, Family relationships, Low-income people
Related Program
Helping Hearts Heal Program
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
We are tracking number of participants through program. Given the challenges of COVID-19, we were still able to safely provide in-person services to these bereaved families and their children.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Adam’s House mission is to provide grief education and peer support to bereaved children in Connecticut, at no-cost to their families. Each child deserves a supportive and understanding community to learn and explore their feelings of loss. The purpose of Adam’s House is to be a partner in their healing process. As a result, Adam’s House is helping empower children and their families after their loss to live their lives to the fullest, to have the tools and resources to continue along the grief journey and be prepared to take on grief’s challenges, and to build a compassionate, confident, and strong generation of good grievers.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Adam’s House operates a no-cost, 8-week peer-support program for children ages 5-18 and their family/caregivers, who have experienced the death of a loved one. Through the weekly, curriculum-based sessions, children have the opportunity to draw support from their peers and gain new strategies for dealing with loss. Each week participants build resiliency, confidence, and self-esteem through age-appropriate activities, arts and crafts, play, and conversation. 1 in 16 children in Connecticut with lose a parent or sibling by the age of 18. Support for child bereavement is critical for healthy development. By having a caring community, peer-support, coping skills, and a stable caregiver, children are less likely to encounter negative behaviors as a result of grief, included but not limited to substance abuse, anxiety and depression and maladaptive coping.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Adam’s House operates on a lean operating staff with only three part time positions, who manage our community outreach and partnerships—making the program aware to families in need, development—ensuring that our program remains no-cost thanks to the generosity of corporate and individual donors and foundation and grant support, and the program and families—taking grieving families every step of the way through Adam’s House from initial calls to graduation. We have a beautiful home located in Shelton, CT—easy to get to from major highways, as well as local communities—that lets children feel as if they are going over to a friend’s house and not a doctor, because these children are sad, not sick. Most importantly, our organization manages more than 50 volunteers who serve as FIGS or Friends in Grieve, who after receiving training lead our peer-support groups.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
As of June 2019, Adam’s House has supported 54 children, 38 adults, and 31 families, we have successfully run four programs across three years, and we continue to grow our numbers. The families who walk through our doors leave after 8-weeks feeling like a strong family unit once again, they feel they are better parents to their children, and the kids feel happier, stronger, braver, and more confident, according to program surveys. In addition, as needs for our community shift and we become aware, Adam’s House adds support where able. For instance, we have recently added a widows group for adults to continue growing in their grief journey and get back to being social after loss.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Adam's House
Board of directorsas of 11/30/2023
Michelle Jukoski
Allison Wysota
Kevin Atterberry
Danielle Carlson
Laura Krauss
Scott Luntz
Patti Moonan
Shawna Vallillo
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/01/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.